Frank and Paul Urge WH to Respect Marijuana LawRepresentatives Barney Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Republican Ron Paul of Texas, polar opposites on many issues, joined Wednesday in asking the White House to refrain from acting against marijuana users in Colorado and Washington, which became the first states last week to legalize recreational use of the drug. In a letter to President Obama, the duo asked the White House to “respect the wishes of the voters of Colorado and Washington and refrain from federal prosecution of the inhabitants of those states who will be following their states’ laws with regard to the use of marijuana.”

SAM FARRMember of CongressThank you for sharing your concerns with me about the prohibition of marijuana. As you know, lifting any sort of ban on the use of marijuana, whether recreational or even medicinal, faces an uphill battle. However, because I believe the prohibition of marijuana has done more harm than good, I am pleased to be able to tell you that I am a cosponsor of H.R. 2306, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011 .

Additionally, you should know that in the 107th, 108th, 109th, 110th, and 111th Congresses, I have been a cosponsor of legislation (HR 2592, HR 2233, and HR 2087, HR 5842, and HR 2835 respectively) to provide for the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in those states that have laws allowing it. In addition, I have voted for and worked on amendments to bills on the House floor that would prohibit the Department of Justice from enforcing DEA raids against medical marijuana operations in states that have laws allowing the use of medical marijuana.

In a time when we in Washington have to make hard decisions about our spending priorities, it makes no sense to continue to throw away money on the failed policies like the prohibition of marijuana. After 40 million arrests and a trillion dollars spent to fight drug use, the number of those who have used drugs is up 2,800 percent since 1970. We simply cannot afford to continue funding this kind of failed policy.

I will continue to support the responsible use of marijuana in our state and on a national level. I appreciate you contacting my office and hope that you feel free to contact me again with any further questions or concerns.

As the usual gang of academics in drug policy have, over the years, continually pointed out the uncertainties of legalization given the lack of any actual examples of legalization, I have often publicly wondered at the lack of interest in pushing for a Justice Brandeis-style “laboratory” to give us that actual data.

Now that Washington and Colorado have stepped up to the plate and voted for legalization despite the paralyzing reams of uncertainty that surely must be haunting their every waking moment, it’s nice to see Mark Kleiman appreciating this new laboratory: States as laboratories for marijuana policy.

"It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system, that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country." ~ Justice Louis D. Brandeis 1932

Guide To Legal MJ Use Published By Seattle PoliceBy Phuong Le Huffington Post November 15, 2012 SeattleWhen Washington state voters overwhelmingly legalized the recreational use of marijuana on Nov. 6, Seattle police knew they'd be getting a lot of questions. And while many details surrounding the state's Dec. 6 decriminalization of pot remain, the department didn't shy away from answering what questions it could about Initiative 502, posting a funny, question-and-answer blog that has become a big web hit – having been viewed more than 120,000 times and shared more than 15,000 times on Facebook since it was posted Friday.

Does Sharing Marijuana Constitute Distribution?Civil liberties activists today challenged prosecutors’ arguments that sharing a small amount of marijuana among friends constitutes drug “distribution.” “The Commonwealth is simply wrong to argue that sharing marijuana constitutes criminal distribution,” Matthew R. Segal, legal director for the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “More fundamentally, the Commonwealth’s argument contradicts the will of the voters who approved marijuana decriminalization in 2008. The voters sought to limit marijuana prosecutions, not to invite creative ways for the Commonwealth to increase them.”

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are preserved to the states or to the people.'~ Thomas Jefferson

State Laws Legalizing Marijuana put Obama in Bind"The feds have no interest in [going after individual users]," says Sam Kamin, a law professor at the University of Denver. "They don’t have the resources to do that, and there's nothing they can do from a legal point of view to make the state reverse that decision."

In 2009, Attorney General Holder told reporters that "given the limited resources that we have, our focus will be on people, organizations that are growing, cultivating substantial amounts of marijuana and doing so in a way that's inconsistent with federal and state law.” And later that year a deputy attorney general, David Ogden, seemed to reiterate that stance in a memo, which stated that federal law enforcement shouldn't focus "on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana."

Marijuana Legalization: States Send MessageVoters in Washington and Colorado didn't just pass historic measures legalizing recreational marijuana use last week, they blew smoke in the face of Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and, by extension, President Obama. The bud stops at your desks, gentlemen.

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people' (10th Amendment). To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible to any definition."~ Thomas JeffersonSource: letter to George Washington,15 February, 1791

Marijuana Vote a Game-Changer for CanadaPrime Minister Stephen Harper may be dismissive about the fact that the states of Washington and Colorado voted in favour of legalizing marijuana last week, but they have set the stage for a game changer, however complicated.

MJ Legalization Could Change Anti-Drug StrategiesThe decision by voters in Colorado and Washington state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana has left President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto and his team scrambling to reformulate their anti-drug strategies in light of what one senior aide said was a referendum that “changes the rules of the game.”

Voters Ease Marijuana Laws in 2 StatesFor supporters of legalizing marijuana, it was a historic moment, one that drew comparisons to the end of Prohibition: On Tuesday, voters in Colorado and Washington State made it legal to smoke pot recreationally, without any prescription or medical excuse. But as Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado cautioned voters on Tuesday night: “Don’t break out the Cheetos or the Goldfish too quickly.”

“I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.”~ Tolstoy

Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potato as an article of food. Government is just as fallible, too, when it fixes systems in physics. Galileo was sent to the Inquisition for affirming that the earth was a sphere; the government had declared it to be as flat as a trencher, and Galileo was obliged to abjure his error. ... Reason and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before them. It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. -- Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on the State of Virginia," 1787

"We are grateful to the Washington Post, the NY Times, Time Magazine, and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings, and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years. It would have been impossible for us to develop OUR PLAN for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a World Government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual ELITE and World Bankers is surely preferable to the national auto - determination practiced in past centuries."~ David Rockefeller CFR Kingpin,Founder of the Trilateral Commission,NOW Godfather / June 1991

Raich
v Gonzales granted the Federal government Commerce rights over selling
or giving away more than reasonable amounts. States have authority over
individuals growing reasonable amounts. Reasonable amounts have been
established by the Feds IND program as 300 joints every 25 days or 100
plants per year. The 10th amendment was over ridden due to the Commerce
clause. Its the IRS busting buyers clubs, not DEA. CA compassionate use
act is the only state law permitting reasonable amounts for anyone for
any reason. MMJ states, including CO and WA have limited themselves to a
catch 22 impossible situation quantifying amounts that are impossible
to grow individually. Forcing sales that are illegal under Fed
jurisdiction. No one can grow an ounce or less. The UN follows the US
concerning the drug war and its lies. Over 30 countries are growing Hemp
as the US maintains its ugly prohibition of it. Anslinger set up the UN
treaty for this very reason. In case future politicians buckle down to
the will of the people. Enough! Remove cannabis as a schedule#1
narcotic. Including Hemp that should have never been put there in the
first place. Stop incrementalizing. Cannabis is safe, end of story.

"We have spent over a trillion dollars trying to eradicate the world's
most beneficial plant off the face of the earth. Imagine what a better
world this would be if that money had been spent on treatment, education
and studying the medical benefits of marijuana."-- Steve Hager - High Times Editor (1988 - 2003)

Where are all of the Taxbaggers and Norquest?
Billions in Tax funds spent each year, nothing said. State rights over
ruled by the Feds, nothing said. Now the US has to bow down to UN laws?
Taking profits from businesses wanting to grow Hemp. The Neocons seem a
tad cornfused on their own philosophy...

A
very powerful OpEd in the New York Times by Fernando Henrique Cardoso
(former President of Brazil) and Ruth Dreifuss (former President of
Switzerland): An Ugly Truth in the War on Drugs

UN Report Slams Cruel Drug Treatment as "Torture" Mar 11 2013
Compulsory "treatment" for drug addiction in some parts of the world is
"tantamount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,"
according to report last month from the UN's special rapporteur on
torture and other degrading treatments and punishments.

Consider
these numbers: Hundreds of thousands of people locked in detention
centers and subject to violent punishments. Millions imprisoned.
Hundreds hanged, shot or beheaded. Tens of thousands killed by
government forces and non-state actors. Thousands beaten and abused to
extract information, and abused in government or private “treatment”
centers. Millions denied life-saving medicines. These are alarming
figures, but campaigns to address them have been slow and drug control
has received little attention from the mainstream human rights movement.
[...]New York Times: Ruth Dreifuss
Fernando Henrique Cardoso

Courts rule against marighoochie eh, well there's a shocker. Since
some counties have been banning dispensaries all along. With a vengeance
unseen in other crimes. Maybe if cops got as many bennies for murder
and bankster crimes they could actually do some good for society. Others
haven't banned them and won't. This has more to do with zoning laws
than cannabis. Meaning now towns can ban about anything they deem fit.
Regardless of the law. Same as corporate property management companies
banning guns and growing pot. Nothing from HUD or the Feds concerning
individuals. Just corporate rules as though your home was a work place.
Don't see the NRA upset about those citizens rights to bear arms. Or use
pot. Just pot phobic drug worriers making a buck on prohibition. Over
zealous religionists and the competition kept from the misnomer free
trade market. Again, not much of a shocker.

All
dispensaries are federally banned, abeit bogusly under the CSA. Only
individuals growing reasonable amounts are not illegal in CA. They may
be in MMJ states since it is a state jurisdiction and limits not invoked
by the feds, are being implemented as valid, and state cages are just
as ugly. Sales sales sales are what is in question and deemed Commerce
as of Raich v Gonzales. This whack a mole will continue as long as
integrity is MIA in drug worriers agendas. The sad part is Nixon lumping
in non psychoactive hemp and the same dumbasses go along with its
prohibition too. Can't fix stupid, Over 75 years maintaining this
dysfunction proves it. The politicians and cops can cheer what will only
force seniors and republicans onto the unfamiliar streets and the risks
involved that are eliminated with the vast majority of dispensaries.
Cops and courts serving the drug war industry. In the name of protecting
kids, they cause more kids harm. If they really didn't know this you
might write it off as good intentions. Now its not even a secret. Most
of the prohibitionists are in it for the money, and that is their only
motive.

Follow CA or Bust'No
limits or specific medicinal reasons in the Compassionate Use Act.
Unlike the remaining states MMJ laws heavily siding with perpetuating
the profits of prohibition. Wether it's the old fashioned mandatory
minimum prison terms or the rehashed rehabilitation asylums, pisstastes
and loss of government services for life. Also the child welfare rackets
are cashing in confiscating kids along with the car, tv and forfeiting
the house. For smoking pot. Grow your own if legal is a mandate for you.
The streets will prosper as long as politicians interfere with our
daily lives. Such a waste when we thought we were electing these
representatives to follow our needs and assist us, not tell us what we
need. To lead us to the Constitution, not away towards Wall St. Lets not
cage a grower, and give the money saved to the schools.

Mind
boggler. The CSA determines what is Federal jurisdiction and what is
not. States therefore can't over rule Federal law. Federal law has set
precedent in amounts individuals can possess, without intent to sell.
Meaning Federal law should over rule any state limits, less than Feds
have determined. Thats under 100 plants or 300 joints every 25 days.
Technically under these funkylaws 100 people could grow 99 Hemp plants
and get a decent crop to process into blue jeans and protein. That is
assuming all of this matters since Nixon lied to begin with and cannabis
doesn't qualify as a schedule#1 narcotic. If the roots are poison so be
the fruit. Removing cannabis is the right thing to do, the science
based thing to do and just common sense to let local communities have a
manna from heaven to get thru the hardships and unemployment.

Now what was the message to the kidlets?
Lie, cheat, steal, kill and cage people for the less harmful plant?
Fossil fools cause cancer and cannabis prevents it so ban the plant
taking potential pharmaceutical profits treating cancer? Or the
abortions caused by the poisons sprayed on the bible belt cotton crop,
isn't sprayed on hemp. No poisoncide sales, ban it. Schedule#1 burlap
and canvas. Keeping the streets in business and the kids from stepping
stoned gateways to essential fatty acids in the seed oil. Hemp could put
the rain-forest clear cutting out of business and the cattle grazers
and steel, Oil, frakgas and plastic people won't be polluting up the
place... causing more people to invest in pharmaceutical drugs and
healthcare. The United States longest war on its own people is an
embarrassment to Liberty and Justice for all. Following the Military
Industrial complex spreading hatred and fear in foreign lands.

This article describes how legal growers are being prosecuted with a vengeance--

Here we go again.

Not one new thing in this article hasn't been happening since our
Prop 215 was passed. It was solidified by the Supreme Court Raich v
Gonzales. But no one either wants to believe it or they think sympathy
will stop judges from placing gag orders as they have done since the
gitgo. The feds don't recognize it and therefore the jury can't hear it.
Only jury nullification can stop it and most aren't that informed. The
gag is a deterrent to jury trials. It works since 95% of the busts are
please bargained into rehabilitation profits and piss quizzes. But Obama
is only following the law and his jurisdiction busting commerce, not
personal stash that is a state jurisdiction. CO and WA are believing
their own hype and will see the wrath of Wall St because of it. This
Ganjawar is for the money perpetuating it and keeping competition out of
free enterprise. Thats it. Obama could overturn the CSA and Congress
could get some ethics and remove cannabis as a scheduled drug Nixon lied
to get placed in the CSA. But Obama can not over rule the Supreme Court
or the 10th amendment protecting INDIVIDUALS, not commercial grow ops
or selling or giving away any amount. Personal stash or reasonable
amounts not determined intent to sell or actually getting busted
selling. Is a state jurisdiction that all of the MMJ states except CA
have thrown away the citizens rights putting limits too small to grow
and forcing sales against the feds.

This was over the limit considered reasonable amounts and was
considered sales. The judge did what judges do and the persecution did
the same. When people disregard common sense and push their ego's and
profits as the excuse this is how it ends up. Eddie Lepp and Charlie
Lynch are doing the NRA's mandatory minimum sentencing for the same
crime. Against the IRS, with the DEA riding along with no power. Obama
didn't lie about not busting patients, he hasn't. But he did fudge by
claiming it is out of lack of funding when patients are individually
protected by the 10th and state law rules. When state law limits or
places conditions prop 215 doesn't, then it is the states busting
individuals, not Obama. Most of the 800,000 busted each year are by
states, not the DEA, This is yet one more attempt at circumventing fed
law that is well established. Dispensaries are only in business due to
lack of enforcement budget as obama said. Mostly those not paying taxes
even if they can't exempt basic business expenses as anyone else can.
Its all considered commerce. Sorry. States need citizens initiatives as
CA has, not cop written catch 22's because its the right thing to do. If
they actually cared, it would have never started.